Australia v New Zealand
The New Zealanders in Australia, 2004-05
Peter English
15-Apr-2005
At Adelaide, November 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 2004. Australia won by 213 runs. Toss:
Australia.
Having given as good as they got before being blown away in the second half at
Brisbane, New Zealand faced five days of relentless punishment at Adelaide. Australia's
performance was cruelly efficient; New Zealand could find no improvement in the four
days' rest between Tests.
Langer began the first day with a boundary off Martin and ended it with a century
that even he called "gritty" - a term he usually despises when used to describe his
batting. With the Adelaide weather approaching its most scorching, and the pitch looking
as enticing to batsmen as ever, Australia kept the same side while New Zealand opted
to strengthen their bowling. The off-spinner Wiseman, on the tour with this match in
mind, was preferred to McMillan, who failed twice at Brisbane, while the left-arm
seamer Franklin, recovered from the groin strain that ruled him out of the First Test,
replaced Mills.
But Franklin overpitched far too often, and in the second over Langer hit him for
four boundaries, a display repeated before stumps during Franklin's second over with
the new ball. New Zealand's fast bowlers failed to take a single wicket in the match:
the ten Australian wickets to fall were shared by Vettori and Wiseman, although Warne
took only three of the 20 New Zealand wickets.
Langer and Hayden took their combined opening-partnership record past 4,000 runs
with their 13th century stand, and the batting almost became a carnival: Martyn and
Clarke were the only two of the top eight not to reach half-centuries. Hayden stood
his ground when caught by the bowler Wiseman - and the video umpire was consulted
to give an easy decision; Ponting again looked in too much of a rush to make his first
hundred as captain; Lehmann, narrowly missing a home-ground hundred, found another
strange way of getting out when bowled by Wiseman off his pads playing outside leg
stump; Gilchrist faced some tricky moments against Vettori before freeing his arms,
and Warne hit out as the declaration approached.
Vettori's five-wicket haul was New Zealand's highlight, but his second only came
when Langer, who brought up his double-century with one of three sixes to go with
25 crashed fours, departed at 445 for four after 499 minutes and 368 balls at the crease.
Vettori talked about copying India's performance here the previous year, when Australia
opened with 556 and lost by four wickets, but that dream ended quickly. The crucial
wicket came when Fleming, having played his one fluent innings of the series, was
caught behind off McGrath, who led the way with four wickets. But all the front-line
bowlers made telling contributions, and Warne broke the untrodden ground of 550 Test
wickets when Franklin played back and was lbw.
Leading by 324, Ponting decided against the follow-on and ordered tactics to crush
any possible fightback. The top four plodded to 139 from 56 overs, sparking unusual
hurry-ups from the crowd to a home captain. Ponting even batted on four overs after
lunch on the fourth day, from which he and Martyn made four: arithmetically neat but
turgid to watch. "We've entertained a lot better than any other side in the history of
the game, but with one two-hour period it's all over the papers," Ponting said doggedly.
"We achieved what we wanted to achieve."
Australia did then turn it on, producing a bowling performance that Fleming described
as facing "three Richard Hadlees and the greatest leg-spinner of all". Within 21 overs
New Zealand were 34 for four and Fleming, the only batsman capable of leading any
lengthy resistance, had again fallen to McGrath. He tried to leave the ball alone but
it darted back, deceiving not only him but McGrath too, who appealed for an lbw even
though the off bail had been dislodged.
Contributions from Oram and McCullum, whose bright attack on Warne centred on
lifting him out of the heavy rough, eased the contest into a fifth day, and a half-century
by Vettori dragged it into the second session. Australia took six balls to capture the
final wicket after lunch. Thereafter, the main interest was in the end-of-series race
between Lehmann and Richardson, the slowest men on each team. Richardson broke
the tape, but his batting spirit was also torn. He went home, waited a week and then
announced his retirement from all cricket. With four failures Richardson had suffered
as much as anyone in a series Fleming correctly called a "hiding".
Man of the Match: J. L. Langer. Attendance: 60,689.
Man of the Series: G. D. McGrath.
Peter English is the Australasian editor of Cricinfo